


Only Warm in Your Arms

by tresa_cho



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mermaid, Community: hc_bingo, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Water
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-02
Updated: 2011-08-02
Packaged: 2017-10-22 03:45:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/233388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tresa_cho/pseuds/tresa_cho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their shuttle goes down in icy waters. Jim hallucinates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Only Warm in Your Arms

**Author's Note:**

> For my 'hypothermia' square in hc_bingo

Leonard McCoy woke to the sensation of breathing through his gills.

Goddamit. He opened his eyes, stretching out his arms to try and get a bearing on where he was. Weightlessly suspended in frigid waters, his body had forced the transformation while he was unconscious in a last-ditch effort to keep him alive. This was going to be hard to explain to Jim.

 _Jim._

Leonard twisted, gills flaring, and he tore after the rapidly sinking shuttle. A gaping hole in the windshield explained how he had escaped, but Jim was still in there, and as far as Leonard knew, he did not have the advantage of merblood in him. Grasping the hole blown in the ship, Leonard hauled himself inside, towards the pilot's chair. Jim was struggling with the catch of his seatbelt, precious air dribbling from his nose and lips.

He jerked when Leonard swam into his vision, letting out a surprised explosion of air. Leonard clapped his hand over Jim's mouth, and scowled at him. Jim's hand replaced Leonard's when he reached for the catch, pulling hard at it. The stupid thing wouldn't give, and Leonard shifted in the water, trying to find something to snap it off. Out of the corner of his eye, Jim's chest heaved desperately, involuntarily trying to draw air where there was none.

Leonard's hand closed over the medkit, where he knew there was a sonic knife. The knife would be stronger in the water- more molecules to press together- and he arched back towards Jim, spilling the contents of the medkit into the water around them. Jim was barely moving, his hands still over his nose and lips, still fighting. Leonard snapped the knife on, miscalculating the strength, and sawed through the seatbelt and a bit of Jim's hip.

Jim cried out as blood spilled into the water in thick curls, teeth flashing as he involuntarily sucked in his first breath of water. Leonard grabbed him under the arms and heaved him up, out through the destroyed bit of their shuttle and towards what his senses told him was the surface. Jim's body jerked violently in Leonard's grip, human lungs rejecting the water being forced into them.

They burst through the surface and into cold Arctic air. Leonard hauled Jim's face above the water, holding his head to let water flow from his mouth. “Come on, Jim,” Leonard said. “Breathe. Breathe for me.”

As if on command, Jim lurched, coughing and retching. He thrashed, and Leonard had to fight to keep him from going under again. “Okay, Jim, okay. I've gotcha,” Leonard said, casting about for any bit of land. The only thing he could see was a block of what appeared to be ice within swimming distance. “Just lay still, Jim. I'm going to get us to that patch of ice over there. Lay still.” And Leonard started swimming.

“God. You have a tail,” Jim said as Leonard shoved him up out of the water, shivering violently. He tried to help pull himself out, at least lucid enough to understand that 'out of water was good'. He coughed again, a wet, rattling sound that Leonard did not like. At least he was still shivering.

“I have a tail,” Leonard said. “And I have to go back down there to get a comm, otherwise we're both going to freeze to death. Stay here. I swear to god, if you move, I will kill you.”

“Bones, no,” Jim pleaded weakly, fairly collapsing on his side, hand reaching for Leonard. “Don't go...” Leonard gripped Jim's hand briefly.

“It's all right, Jim. I'll be right back. You won't even miss me.” Leonard gave Jim's knuckles a brief kiss, painfully ignored the blood staining the ice pink, and dove again, gills flaring along his ribs. It took him longer than he would have liked to find a comm that he could hopefully still force to work through water damage, and he kicked back to the surface.

He clawed his way back to Jim through the deathly cold water, and pulled himself up on the ice block. Jim wasn't moving. Wasn't shivering, wasn't moaning, was barely breathing (and when he did inhale, it was with a rasping gasp)... Leonard recognised the onset of hypothermia. Jim wouldn't be any help in their rescue, and if they didn't get rescued soon, he would be dead.

Leonard dragged himself up over Jim, rearranging his hands between the relative warmth of their bodies. Leonard flinched at how cold Jim's fingers were against his skin, and rapidly rubbed Jim's arms until his hands felt raw. “Come on, Jim, stay with me,” Leonard said.

He spared a few moments fiddling with the comm, trying to beat it into submission.

“Bones...”

“I'm here, Jim. Save your breath. Just stay awake for me, okay?” Leonard said, looping an arm under Jim's head to pull him close. Jim's head rolled loosely against his arm, his breath dangerously shallow against Leonard's goose-pimpled skin. Leonard draped his tail over Jim's legs, bending them close to both their bodies in an attempt to keep him warmer. The comm in his hand crackled suddenly, startling Leonard. He gripped it hard and drew it close. “McCoy to Enterprise. We need an immediate pick-up. I repeat, I have a medical emergency. Do you copy?”

Uhura's voice cut through the static in an affirmative, and Leonard felt the relieving tingle of dematerialisation. He landed hard on his side on the transporter pad, and all noise around him stopped. _Shit_.

“Where's the medical team?” Leonard snapped, unwrapping himself from Jim's limp body. He glared at the crew around the pad, daring them to say something, and finally, a group of his nurses pushed the officers aside to get to Jim. They scooped him up on a stretcher and hauled him away to the safety of MedBay. Leonard scowled. “Do you mind?”

Spock was the first to speak, and before he even opened his mouth Leonard hated him. “It appears that you have been hiding something from us, doctor.”

Leonard ignored him and concentrated, forcing his legs apart. He dragged in a gulp of air as his body remembered how to live on land once more. Skin slid into place over his gills, and he was human once more. He pushed himself weakly to his feet, staggering. Sulu was under his arm instantly, supporting him unobtrusively. “Let's get you to Medical, doctor,” Sulu said gently, his grip tight on Leonard's arm. Leonard nodded, and soon he was lying in bed falling asleep.

He woke considerably warmer and drier. He sat up instantly, swinging himself out of bed before any of the nurses had a chance to realise he had awoken. A shiver rolled down his spine, and he snatched a labcoat to be on the safe side. The nurses had drawn the privacy curtains around Jim's bed, and Leonard slipped through them without hesitation.

“Bones,” Jim said, paling drastically. His eyes were red, and that gave Leonard pause. Jim reached for him, and Leonard grasped his hand. Jim squeezed painfully, tugging him near. “Oh my god. You're real.” His voice cracked.

“I'm real, Jim. What's wrong?” Leonard leaned over Jim, the doctor in him shoved aside when he saw how distressed Jim was. “Jim, talk to me.”

“I thought you'd drowned,” Jim said, forcing the words out. “And I was hallucinating- You- You had a fucking tail and then you disappeared. God, Bones, it was so cold. I couldn't feel anything- but you were _dead_ -”

“Shh,” Leonard said, slipping onto the bed. Jim crumbled in his arms, shaking. “Hey. It's all right. You were hypothermic. You weren't lucid. You probably saw things and thought things that didn't happen.” He gripped Jim close to his chest, burying his face in the man's throat. Jim's chest shuddered hard against his, his heart beating frantically. “Jim, I do have to tell you something, though.” He drew back despite Jim's slight whimper of protest. “You weren't hallucinating. I did have a tail.”

Jim stared at him, astonishment pushing back his crushing relief. “Wait. What?”

Leonard ensured the curtains were closed before shrugging out of his white coat. He leaned back on one hand, the other pulling up his shirt. Jim's eyes were wide on him as he let his gills ripple into existence along his ribs.

“Jesus Christ, Bones,” Jim said in a breathless whisper. “Why wasn't that in your files?” Leonard forced the gills back down, and dropped his shirt.

“Because I didn't want it getting around,” Leonard said. “I'm not a freak.” Jim looked at him reproachfully.

“Bones, we were in class with aliens,” Jim reminded him. Leonard shrugged. Reaching out, Jim ran his fingers along Leonard's ribs, as if he wanted to feel the gills there. “So. Merman, huh?”

“Don't call me that.” Leonard groaned, rolling his entire head in exasperation. “See. This is why I didn't want it getting out. And now the whole crew knows. Why do you think I hate space so much?”

“Because there are a million different ways to die?” Jim postulated. Leonard hesitated.

“Well, yea, there is that. But there's also no water.”

“There's no air either.”

“Stop being a jackass.”

Jim's eyes watered, but he blinked the tears back, throwing his arms around Leonard's neck. Leonard squeezed him back tightly. “Don't leave me, Bones.”

“Never,” Leonard swore hoarsely against the fabric of Jim's shirt. A rough shiver worked its way down Jim's spine. Leonard held him closer. “Never.”


End file.
